Music-leaf turner.



l. R. NAUGLE.

MUSIC LEAF TURNER; APPLICATION FILED OCT. 14, 1912.

1,152,538. Patented Sept. 7, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

III/11111171111 mm ammm COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH CO.,WASHIN GTON. D. c.

I. R. NAUGLE.

MUSIC LEAF TURNER. APPLICATION FILED OCT. 14. 1912.

1 1 52,538. Patented Sept. 7, 1915.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

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OLUMBIA Y'LANOGRAPh C0,, \vAsmNGTDN. D, c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

INGLE R. NAUGLE, or AMESVILLE, OHIO.

MUSIC-LEAF TURNER.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, INGLE R. NAUGLE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Amesville, in the county of Athens, State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Music-Leaf Turners; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

In music leaf turners, as now generally constructed, much objection has been caused due to the necessity of employing too great a number of springs and like intricate parts, whereby the cost of production rendered them too expensive for general use while the working parts were readily subject to derangements.

With the foregoing in view, my present invention consists more especially in providing a novel and improved and readily operable music leaf turner which obviates the foregoing objections and permits the application of the device to be operated in connection with music books having a variablenumberof sheets.

Another essential object consists in the provision of a music leaf turner which embodies preferably, a casing or box inclosing the working parts for positively shifting a plurality of arms from a common source of power to intermittently shift the music leaves, the device being especially adapted for use in connection with pianos, although it is to be understood that the apparatus may be made as a part of a piano or in the above specified form, used in connection with a music rack and operated by one foot if desired.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention resides more particularly in the peculiar combinations and arrangements of parts as will be partly illustrated as a preferred embodiment in the accompanying drawings and described in the specification, although the invention is protected for all desirable changes and uses within the scope of the invention as claimed.

Figure 1 is a frontelevation illustrating the application of my improved music leaf turner to a piano. Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the device detached. 'Fig. 8 is a rear elevation of the turner with the rear portion of the casing removed. Fig. 4 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line l1 of Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. *7, 1915.

Fig. 3 showing the rear portion of the casmg in position. Fig. 5 is a top plan view with the arms engaged with sheets of a music book for turning the same and with one of the arms shown as being shifted. Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 66 of Fig. 4. Fig. 7 is a detail perspective view of one of the leaf engaging members carried by each arm of the turner. Fig. 8 is a side elevation illustrating the foot operating means for the turner. Fig. 9 is a=detail perspective view of one segmental gear.

In illustrating the preferred embodiment of the invention, there is shown a relatively flat and rectangular casing or box 10 which is adapted to be mounted along the music board of a piano or otherwise supported, the same having rotatably supported therein at one side of its longitudinal center upon a horizontal shaft 11 supported inthe front and back walls of the casing, a disk or wheel 12. Formed at the front portion of the wheel 12 is a cog pinion or gear 13 and a ratchet wheel 11 while the rear portion of said wheel carries a plurality of segmental and arcuate rack gears 15 arranged in a spiral in their extent around the shaft, although each gear is equi-distantly disposed from the shaft throughout its length. As will also be seen from the vertical sectional view, the gears 15 extend at right angles from theinner face of the wheel 12, being gradually decreased in breadth as they approach the exterior portion of the circumferential edge of the wheel. I

The wheel 12 is held normally under tension by a coiled spring 16 which is secured to the wheel and shaft respectively and within the area of the gears 15, the latter of which are provided in numbers equal to the number of leaves to be turned and which may be varied at will. A plurality of sup porting projections 17 are secured to the back wall of the casing in staggeredrelation to the gears 15 and form supports for pivotally mounted segmental gears or pinions 18 which are disposed to intermesh with the respective gears 15, the lengths of the supports 17 being oppositely increased in length with relation to the breadth of the gears 15. Connected to each segmental gear 18 is an operating shaft or rod 19 which extends upwardly of the casing and has a turning arm 20 extended therefrom in juxtaposition, the free ends of the arms being vertically flattened as'shown at 21 beyond the inner, outwardly and downwardly inclined portions thereof so as to support leaf engaging clips 22 preferably formed of sheet metal or tin and between which are insertible sections of celluloid 23 if necessary, to hold the sheets tight and against displacement.

The disk or wheel 12 is held rearwardly or strengthened by a bearing wheel or antifriction member 24 extending inwardly from the front of the casing and engaging the face portion of the wheel 12 near its upper portion and peripheral edge whereby thegears 15 will be held in positive mesh with the segmental pinions 18 to cause positive shifting of the turning arms. The spring 16 may be wound in any suitable manner such as by turning the wheel 12, it being only necessary to wind the spring once when the wheel is held from rotation under the action thereof by means of a gravity pawl 25 which is pivoted at one extremity to the casing as shown at 26 and which engages the teeth of the ratchet wheel 14. This pawl is operable within a guide loop 27 and is vertically shiftable by a depending operating rod 28 pivotally connected at its upper end to the shaft portion of the pawl whereby the latter will be disposed beyond the ratchet teeth and permit rotation of the wheel 12 under the influence of the coiled spring 16.

In order to cause winding of the spring 16 after it has spent itself for the turning of the arms 20, a shaft 29 is rotatably mounted in the casing horizontally to one side of the shaft 11 and carries a gear wheel 30 having a plurality of spaced segmental gear sections 31 which when engaged with the gear 13 are adapted to throw the said wheel 12 backward whereby the pawl 25 will engage the next adjacent tooth of the ratchet wheel 14. The plane portions of the gear wheel 30 permit rotation of the operating wheel 12 in shifting the arms for turning the leaves independent thereof and said gear wheel 30 is also arranged with a ratchet wheel 32 and a coiled spring 33 which latter is secured to the shaft 29 and gear wheel 30 respectively, said spring being of greater tension than the spring 16 whereby it may cause the operation of the gear wheel 12 against the action of the spring 16 which will thus be wound. This latter operation is accomplished by means of a similarly pivoted pawl 34 attached to the casing which is releasable from the ratchet teeth of the wheel 32 by a rod 35 to permit the spring 33 to act and which also serves to prevent unwinding of the spring 33 when it is desired to stop the rotation of the gear wheel 13, for instance at the swinging of each arm. It is of course understood that the spring 33 is wound at suitable intervals whereby it is retained at a'tension greater than the tension of the coiled spring 16.

Each of the segmental pinions or gears 18 has connected thereto by short chain sections 36, flat springs 37 to catch in the cogs or teeth of the gears 15 when the spring 33 operates to turn the gear wheel 13 backwardly, the springs being provided to start the engagement of the segmental pinions in either direction and thereby obviating the necessity of employing a complete gear wheel, especially when operating a number of wires or turning arms. It is to be noted that these arms are engaged by the respective ends of the respectix e segmental gears 15 so that the piece of the segmental gears 18 engage properly with the teeth of the gears 15, the arms simply acting as starting teeth. A plurality of stop pins 38 are also carried by the back of the casing in rear of the lowermost extended Wires, preferably four (4) thereof to form stops for said wires. The lower extremities of the operating rods 28 and 35 for the pawls 25 and 34 respectively, have connected thereto a series of pivotally supported and similarly connected levers or rods 39 and 40 which are pivoted to the casing and which operate through slots 41 in the casing at one end thereof, such levers having depending portions 42 pivoted as shown at 43 upon a fulcrum whereby two laterally deflected hand operating portions 45 disposed over and in close proxlmation to the keys of the piano will when pressed upwardly cause the operating rods to be raised for releasing the pawls accordingly as it is desired to turn the leaves or to shift all of the same to an operating position.

If desired, the portions 42 may be downwardly extended as shown at 44 to form a pedal 45 for operation by one foot of the musician as in Fig. 8 of the drawings.

In order that the device may be attachable for sheet music of various kinds and sizes and more particularly for permitting the gripping thereof with the clips 22, a vertically movable horizontal supporting rack 46 is engaged against the front portion of the casing and has end clamps 47 engaged with the ends of the casing while a clamping screw 48 engages the face of the casin to hold the rack in an adjusted position. 17 will thus be seen that the convenience of this apparatus to the player is to save his or her time, it being only necessary to depress the operating wire 44 or the pedal 45 to cause the turning of the sheets while spring 49 connected to the operating portions serve to constantly hold the same in raised positions for operation after being released.

In order to understand the operation of the device let it be supposed that the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 5 and that, when in this position, all of the strips 22 are to the right of the player and engaged in respective sheets of music. Now, after one of the sheets has been played the operator simply depresses the handle 45 attached to the rod 28 and this releases the pawl 25. This permits turning of the disk or wheel 12 through one segment so that the respective segmental gear 15 operates the first of the segmental gears 18 whereupon the pawl engages the next tooth of the ratchet 14 and stops the operation. This operation is repeated as many times as may be desired in accordance with the number of leaves to be turned. WVhen the piece of music has been played or, when it is necessary to return to the first sheet, the operator actuates the rod 35 by means of the other member 45 and as this is done the spring 33, being stronger than the spring 16 causes rotation of the interrupted gear 80 and a gear portion of this interrupted gear engages the gear 13 and turns the same backward. By repeated actuations of the rod 35 the disk 12 is restored to its first position. In the restoration of the gear to its original position all of the segmental gears 18 are also restored to their original positions and the music is again ready to be played.

I claim:

A leaf turner of the class described embodying a rotatably supported disk, independently mounted leaf turning arms, gears on said arms, segmental gears on the opposite face of said disk projecting at right an gles to the face of the disk through spirally arranged slotted apertures in said disk and adapted to engage successively the gears on said arms, means to cause the rotation of said disk in one direction to shift the arms, spring members connected to said segmental gears for starting the engagement thereof when oppositely moved, a gear wheel carried by said disk, a spring wound interrupted gear wheel to intermesh with the first named gear wheel, ratchet wheels connected to each gear wheel, pawls engageable with said ratchet wheels to hold the gears against ro tation, shiftable rods connected with the pawls to release the same and means normally retaining said rods in position to release the pawls.

In testimony whereof, I afiix my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

INGLE R. NAUGLE.

Witnesses:

I. E. MIGKLE, F. L. THOMAS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

